


blueberry oat bars

by mangozaya



Series: cinnamon sugar muffins [1]
Category: TREASURE (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, asahi is a bit of a perfectionist baker, excessive explanation of bakery elements, jaehyuk's cafe order is interesting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangozaya/pseuds/mangozaya
Summary: Asahi is terribly confused with his new regular—a boy who comes in to buy exactly three lemon scones and a peculiar smoothie.
Relationships: Hamada Asahi/Yoon Jaehyuk, Kim Junkyu/Park Jihoon
Series: cinnamon sugar muffins [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907095
Comments: 9
Kudos: 89





	blueberry oat bars

Asahi’s mildly inconvenient morning starts out with a charred pot of coffee.

Like, _horribly_ charred. If he’s especially unlucky, he might have to throw out the whole brew.

Glancing wearily at the smoking mess on the back counter--he’s really, really hoping it doesn’t set off the fire alarm at this point, but the steam rising from the coffee is alarming--and he’s not ready to face Jihoon’s kind but inevitable exasperation when he clocks into his own shift during the late afternoon. Asahi isn’t looking forward to another daily gag joke on how ‘ _for all the tiramisu you make, you can’t even fix yourself a cup of coffee_ ’.

Jihoon thinks he’s funny. Asahi disagrees. Junkyu maintains a neutral stance between his friends, but secretly sides with Asahi through an amused wink and a mouthed _let him talk, let’s entertain this_ ; every week, Junkyu will further tease Jihoon’s occasional motivational speeches about the _power of coffee aroma_ or the benefits of a slow roast. The two boys are almost like magnets; Asahi’s been trying to play subtle matchmaker for weeks now.

Unfortunately, neither of his usual coworkers are around to entertain the long hours of his shift. It’s an unusually slow morning at Sunrise Cafe on this particular Wednesday.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t a bit overwhelmed at this moment. Luckily no one is around to wrinkle their nose at the burned coffee if they were to come and order at the counter. He really needs to throw another pot on medium high before someone comes in, the jangling bell of the door his biggest alert of a new customer. He’s got two trays of cookies that he still hasn’t plated yet from the cooling rack, and half a recipe of cheesecake brownies to finish up with before noon.

Moving from the cashier counter to the oven in the backroom, Asahi ties his hair up and fits an apron--Junkyu insisted on a pink pastel one with large sunflowers; Asahi thinks it’s cute--around his waist. He needs a good hour to finish baking and stocking everything in the front displays; he really should have came in sooner.

Asahi gets a solid 45 minutes of sifting flour and glazing petals on wedges of carrot cakes before he gets the inevitable customer. He’s got his hand halfway down a bag of sugar--high on his tiptoes, hair escaping his top bun, narrowing missing his eyes--before a faint chime rings out from beyond the curtain that hides the stockroom.

_Sigh._

He should really start avoiding these morning shifts.

He places down his bowl of shortbread crumble, unmixed with a small square of butter to the side, and inhales slowly. He forces his best customer service smile to compensate for the dullness of the morning.

Exhale.

“One moment.” Asahi calls out, in a tone that’s mostly genuine, and pushes himself past the curtain to the front of the cash register, ready to greet a cheery teenager or frazzled business worker. He doesn’t get too different a customer between shifts; today isn’t an exception.

He reaches the register to face a boy about his height, one who is curiously glancing between separate shelves of pastries, his bright smile a little jarring against the hazy morning backdrop.

“Thank you for your patience. What can I get you today?” Asahi has the entire customer policy guidebook memorized, front to back.

His customer holds up both hands as a way to reassure Asahi that he wasn’t waiting too long. “It’s fine! I just got here.” The boy lowers his hands and points a finger to the small glass case, the one on display to the left of Asahi’s register. “Could I have one of these-” he pauses, “actually, make that three please.”

Asahi’s external demeanor is a polite, “Yes of course, one moment.”

Internally, he’s sighing.

The boy has done nothing. It’s a personal thing.

His customer has pointed to the case of lemon scones that are layered delicately atop each other, dough crumbles sprinkled at the base of the stand. Asahi wishes their bakery wouldn’t even sell these. He can bake close to thirty varieties of warm cookies, he’s been experimenting with subtle flavor for most of his muffins, and the rest of the displayed arrangements are littered with puffed sheet confections, small cakes, and a few unique pastries of his own making; but, no matter the time or energy invested, the one thing Asahi _cannot perfect_ are the damn scones. They come out of the oven warm and buttery, but by midday, Asahi is forced to shelve them behind all the other pastries for the day. They’re stale in three hours, and no matter the ratio of butter or water, Asahi has been unsuccessful in baking any lasting soft scones.

Junkyu always tells him to not worry much, that the customers will love the subtle lemon flavor anyway. Asahi can’t help but be a little self-conscious

As Asahi bags three scones, set carefully atop one another, his customer looks up at the board behind Asahi, and he claps his hands together, startling Asahi’s work.

“You guys make smoothies!”

“We- yes. The menu is up here.” Asahi gestures to a decorated chalkboard, daily specials and regular smoothies all written elegantly in Yoshinori’s cursive. Yoshi had won over as everyone’s favorite part-time with this alone.

“Could I add a strawberry-banana smoothie? To the same order.”

 _Sure_ , Asahi goes to say, but is interrupted with a quick addition to the order.

“-but can you hold the strawberry?”

_Excuse me?_

Asahi knows the customer guidebook says ‘the customer is always right’, but Asahi has to heavily disagree with that right now.

“A strawberry banana smoothie, _without_ the strawberry? You want a banana smoothie?”

“Yeah, if that’s okay? Do you guys do that?”

Asahi doesn’t think he can make plain banana smoothies even taste good. This has got to be a bet, or a dare. This customer has to be messing with him. He sneaks a glance up from where he’s entering _+$4.25_ into the register, but the boy looks genuine. Excited, even.

“Yeah, I can make that.”

The customer doesn’t think anything of Asahi being a little short. He simply nods enthusiastically and reaches in a back pocket, presumably for a wallet.

“And I make this order out to-?”

“Jaehyuk.”

Asahi eyes the boy again. “Right, Jaehyuk.”

Jaehyuk talks to fill in the time it takes Asahi to cut two bananas into sizable chunks, adding condensed milk and sugar into the blender mix. He adds a quick squeeze of lemon. This is going to taste _disgusting_ , and his customer is going to have no one but himself to blame. This thought keeps Asahi sane as he works through the ridiculous smoothie order.

Meanwhile, Jaehyuk is happily chattering along. Asahi finds that he doesn’t actually mind; he even sends an apologetic half wave over to Jaehyuk while the smoothie whirrs loud enough to drone out Jaehyuk.

With a quick sharpie of ‘ _Jaehyuk'_ and a staple to the bag of scones, Asahi passes the order along and fits his hands into the pockets of his apron.

All things considered, it’s not the weirdest order he’s ever received--it’s just an unfortunate one.

Jaehyuk’s still got this friendly manner to him that hasn’t changed during their entire interaction; despite having an interesting definition for what a smoothie should consist of, Asahi’s starting to realize that Jaehyuk might just be incredibly _nice_.

He makes the decision before he thinks it through.

“Wait!”

Jaehyuk wheels around, a little startled and already close to the exit of the cafe, and watches as Asahi puts on a disposable glove. Asahi mutters out names of different display pastries, much to the confusion of Jaehyuk, before he settles on a freshly baked dessert. A blueberry oat bar, their newest edition to the menu.

“Here. It’s on the house.”

Jaehyuk’s got this curious look in his eyes. Asahi wishes he would just take the pastry and not ask any questions, because Asahi has not one single answer. Jaehyuk must get over his curiosity, because he smiles as wide as he did when he first walked in, and gratefully takes the pastry from Asahi’s hands. “Thank you, I’ll try it on the way home.”

Asahi nods, “Tell me what you think, next time.”

 _Next time?_ Asahi wants to take it back as soon as it’s out of his mouth, but Jaehyuk’s elated laugh saves any embarrassment he’s starting to feel.

“Then, I’ll see you soon Asahi.” Right, Asahi has had a name tag this whole time.

With that, Jaehyuk backs up and leaves the cafe with a wave and a small, pleased smile. Asahi’s still a bit red on the tips of his ears. Jihoon is definitely going to be upset over the missing $3.75 in the cash register. Asahi is willing to listen to the lecture, just this once.

**Author's Note:**

> instead of writing for my already ongoing jaesahi, against better judgement i started another one :D meet baker asahi and his failed lemon scones
> 
> you can recommend some of ur favorite pastries, and i'll be happy to incorporate them ♡ asahi is going to try and make jaehyuk try a LOT of different desserts lmao
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/izayashu)


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